When Leonid Fedun first studied the oil market in 1978, he was a young officer in the Red Army asked to research the impact of prices on NATO forces. More than three decades later, the billionaire shareholder in Russia's second-largest oil company is still at it.

Fedun, 58 and vice-president of OAO Lukoil, says crude prices will rally quickly later in the year and may finish 2015 near $100 a barrel. The situation today, he says, bears little relation to the late 1980s when Saudi Arabia's desire to hold onto market share kept prices low for almost five years.

"We expect a healthier market and I wouldn't be surprised to see $80 to $100 by the end of the year," Fedun said in an interview on Tuesday while visiting London to present Lukoil's 2014 results to investors.